China's birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, despite the implementation of the universal three-child policy, official data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed. The aging population of the world's second-largest economy, along with its reliance on resource-driven growth based on low-cost labour and cheap capital, could dampen China's economic growth targets.

While the payments landscape has digitally transformed in leaps and bounds, the coming few years will be even more defining for the sector as financial institutions work to adapt better to the pandemic. One of the key developments for this year is ISO 20022.

The transaction covers the consumer banking business of Citi in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The agreement comprises its unsecured and secured lending portfolios, wealth management and retail deposit businesses.

All the top 10 most efficient banks in Asia Pacific are from China. Bank of Shanghai is the most efficient in the region, followed closely by Bank of Tianjing and, Bank of Beijing.

CEOs and leaders in the banking industry discussed the impact of emerging technologies and innovations on financial service including the development of new decentralised operating models and Web 3.0, the third generation of the internet.

Bitcoin prices dropped sharply on 3 December, by about 20%, which once again raised the issue of the digital asset's volatility. However, the cryptocurrency has historically been through large price fluctuations caused by market value corrections.

Industry practitioners and experts discuss the critical role financial services play in meeting the needs of both customers and the community, and their preparation for black swan events as the industry moves its innovation from theory to execution

Manish Tibrewal, CEO of Singapore-based wealth manager Maitri Asset Management, discussed the ever-expanding wealth management industry landscape that represents a waterfall of opportunities for every advisor and their high-net-worth clients. He talked about how sustainability is critical to attracting investor capital regardless of sector and how the next generation is driving this change.

Mobile-based payment platform OPay has grown exponentially since its launch in 2018, penetrating the unbanked and underbanked population in Nigeria. It allows users to send and receive money, pay bills, and order food and groceries, with a network of thousands of agents.

Steve Hardgrave, CEO of India-based Varthana, shares how his educational social enterprise is supporting low-cost private schools in India to offer quality education through timely loans and financial support

The total capitalisation of digital assets surged three-fold in 2021, with strong evidence that the momentum is likely to continue into the new year. DeFi users are expected to continue their exponential growth over the next 12 months, with more institutional investors moving into the space, combined with greater clarity over regulators’ stance in the large economies such as China and the US. What challenges and uncertainties could lie ahead to derail the upbeat outlook?

DBS experienced outages to its online banking services from 23 to 24 November, the second extensive disruption to its digital services in over a decade and the worst it has seen since 2010. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it will consider taking supervisory action.

Grab's listing fulfils a key milestone for the platform’s early investors. However, a 12% drop in market value on its first trading day resembles Paytm’s trading debut, putting doubt on an industry that has seen an inflow of increasingly high levels of investment capital.

Kept by Krungsri application is built with cutting-edge technology on the new digital core banking platform.

Al Rajhi Bank and National Bank of Egypt have emerged as the strongest bank in the Middle East and Africa respectively. Across the region, the average ROA of banks fell to 0.9% in 2020 from 1.6% in the year earlier, while their capitalisation remained robust